Author: admin

Intro

At PreProduct we recently passed one million pre-orders processed for merchants, totalling over $85M USD (report here). We dug into the data to pull out 4 key lessons to inform your pre-order strategy — things you can actually use to sell more (and smarter).
Prefer a video? click here.

Lessons

Lesson 1: Ditch the discount

• Insight: 90.4% of pre-orders don’t offer a discount. Turns out, early access is often enough of a hook. The opportunity is to be one of the first to grab the item.
• Lesson: Instead of relying on discounts to drive urgency, open the doors earlier. Longer sales windows = more time to capture demand without undercutting your price. Bonus: you get to run two launches — one for pre-order, one for general availability

Source: https://preproduct.io/one-million-pre-orders#discounts

Lesson 2: Don’t be afraid to go early

• Insight: The most common stated shipping time range for pre-order is 4 – 5 months from the date of pre-launch
• Lesson: Taking pre-orders well in advance is totally doable — especially with charge-later or deposit-based flows. Most customers are happy to wait, as long as expectations are clear.

Source: https://preproduct.io/one-million-pre-orders#shipping-timing

Lesson 3: Whatever the price, as long as it’s above $10

• Insight: Products can do well regardless of price which the partial exception of the $0-10 price range. The $25–$50 range made up 42.7% of orders. But the $250+ range brought in more than 2x the revenue by our estimates.
• Lesson: Unless your product is priced under $10, there’s a strong case for running a pre-launch to take pre-orders. Higher price? Consider taking a deposit or charging upfront. Long lead time? consider charging-later pre-orders.

Source: https://preproduct.io/one-million-pre-orders/#pricing

Lesson 4: Don’t let mixed carts scare you off

• Insight: 62.1% of stores don’t allow buy-now and pre-order items in the same cart — and that’s totally fine.
• Lesson: Mixed carts are doable — via fulfilment holds or conditional line item logic — but they’re not required to get started. Keeping pre-orders in separate orders is often the simplest path early on, and you can always evolve from there.

Source: https://preproduct.io/one-million-pre-orders/#mixed-carts

Bonus insight: Pre-orders aren’t just for startups

• Insight: From what we’ve seen over the last 4 years, more pre-orders come from existing brands than early-stage startups (although there’s plenty of them too).
• Lesson: Pre-orders aren’t just a Kickstarter tactic. They’re a flexible tool — whether you’re managing cashflow, gauging demand, or building buzz. Whatever your company size, there’s most likely a way they can provide value.

Conclusion

That’s it — 4 lessons (plus a bonus) from 1 million pre-orders. Hopefully a few ideas in there can help you sell earlier, smarter, and with fewer discounts this year.

If you’re experimenting with pre-orders or planning a launch, feel free to get in touch or click the button below to start a free trial.

Pre-sell With PreProduct

7 day free trial with all plans

At the start of every year, we focus on our Common Pain Points project—tackling smaller but meaningful improvements based on customer support trends and feature requests that don’t quite fit into larger development cycles. Over the past six weeks, we’ve shipped a number of updates designed to smooth out pre-orders, optimize workflows, and add new flexibility. Here’s what’s new:

Refunds, Payments & Order Management

You can now issue refunds directly from PreProduct, making it easier to handle cancellations and customer requests without needing to jump into Shopify or BigCommerce admin. This streamlines workflows and keeps everything in one place.

For those using the Shop Pay app, we’ve introduced automatic toggling of the sales channel when listing or de-listing a product for pre-order. This ensures that Shop Pay (which doesn’t support pre-orders) doesn’t allow customers to bypass the pre-order flow.

We’ve also added support for editing pre-order quantities—though at this stage, only decreases are supported. This helps merchants manage inventory levels dynamically as pre-orders roll in.

Better Pre-Order Button & UI Handling

We’re introducing an experimental Optimized Button Loading feature for Shopify stores, which ensures that buy-now buttons are hidden more quickly for pre-order products. This reduces friction and prevents customers from checking out incorrectly before the pre-order messaging loads.

We’ve also improved add-to-cart button detection to ensure it doesn’t hide other essential elements on the page, such as quantity selectors and carousel navigation.

Customization & Merchandising Enhancements

Merchants can now set default Shopify ‘purchase option’ names directly from the ‘Customize Wording’ screen, giving more control over how pre-orders and deferred payment options appear to customers.

We’ve added a unit count display for pre-order sections on “See All” listing screens, making it easier to track pre-order demand at a glance.

Backend & Developer-Focused Improvements

Agencies and developer stores can now access a free, unlimited ‘Partner Test’ plan, making it easier to build and test pre-order setups without incurring extra costs.

We’ve updated our search functionality, allowing Shopify users to find products by name, handle, or SKU. BigCommerce merchants will continue to use their native ‘search like’ function for finding products.

On the technical side, we’ve rolled out updates to the latest platform APIs, libraries, and frameworks to ensure long-term stability and compatibility.

Availability Monitoring & Customer Experience

We’ve added a storewide Availability Issues notice to the top-right of the main dashboard. This feature detects pre-order listings with availability issues and allows merchants to resolve them directly from a pop-up modal.

Customers can now update their payment method directly from their customer portal, reducing friction and improving the self-serve experience.

Looking Ahead

These updates are all about making the pre-selling experience smoother, less error-prone, and better converting. We have some exciting bigger features and updates in the pipeline, but for now, here’s to a great 2025!

Oli

Pre-sell With PreProduct

7 day free trial with all plans

Create a custom Shopify crowdfunding bar effortlessly with our free generator. These eye-catching progress bars are great for building hype, driving urgency and increasing conversions. While this generator is designed to be a quick and convenient tool, we offer more advanced pre-order functionalities like deferred-charge with PreProduct.

Click to see a video on how to use this Shopify crowdfunding bar generator.

Why Use a Shopify Crowdfunding Bar?

Shopify crowdfunding bars are powerful visual tools for e-commerce businesses running pre-orders as crowdfunding campaigns. They offer a dynamic way to showcase campaign progress and encourage customer participation. They’re best suited to new products or companies and can offer a great alternative to platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. With the advantage of letting you drive traffic to your own website instead of a third-party platform.

Key Advantages

1. Visual Progress Tracking: Display real-time campaign progress, motivating potential backers to contribute.
2. Urgency Creation: Encourage quicker decisions by showing limited time or quantity remaining.
3. Social Proof: Demonstrate popularity and build trust by showcasing the number of backers or funds raised.
4. Goal Transparency: Clearly communicate campaign targets to align customer expectations.

Pre-sell With PreProduct

7 day free trial with all plans

Create a custom Shopify payment link effortlessly with our free generator. These links send customers directly to your checkout page pre-populated with items. The generator is designed to be a quick convenient tool, if you’d like to automate payment links or use deferred-charge pre-orders, then PreProduct may be a better fit.

Click to see a video on how to use this payment link generator.

Shopify payment links are powerful tools for e-commerce businesses, offering a direct and efficient way to guide customers through the purchasing process. These links streamline transactions by allowing customers to bypass the traditional product page and shopping cart steps, reducing friction and potentially increasing sales.

Key Advantages of Shopify Payment Links

• Direct Purchasing: Send customers a link to your checkout with pre-populated items, eliminating browsing steps, perfect for DM or email interactions.
• Email Campaign Integration: Embed payment links directly in marketing emails for immediate purchasing options.
• Early access: Payment links work even if the product is hidden from your storefront, so can be great for early access launches (just make sure the Product admin status is set to “active”).
• Discount Code Inclusion: Generate links with built-in discount codes for giving promos to specific audiences.

Maximizing Shopify Payment Link Effectiveness

To fully leverage the potential of your Shopify payment links:

1. Targeted Email Campaigns: Use payment links in newsletters or promotional emails to provide a direct path to purchase specific items or deals.
2. Quick Customer Service: Resolve inquiries rapidly by sending payment links for discussed products or easy reorders.
3. Social Media Sales: Share payment links on platforms like Instagram or Facebook to convert interest into immediate sales.
4. Promotional Strategies: Create urgency with time-sensitive deals using links that include limited-time discount codes.

Shopify payment links simplify the path from buyer intent to purchase, reducing barriers and potentially boosting conversion rates. By offering a more streamlined shopping experience, these links can be particularly effective when offered to individuals or specific customer cohorts.

Pre-sell With PreProduct

7 day free trial with all plans